French rental laws discriminate

March 1, 2007 10:00am

A ban on renting apartments to Jews on France’s Cote d’Azur reportedly has not been changed since it was enacted under the World War II-era Vichy government.The law requires that applicants for
certain apartments attest that they are “French, non-Jews, and not married to a Jew, in
the legal sense currently in effect.”The newspaper Nice-Matin, which discovered the law, reported that Jews who wish to buy an apartment in Nice must pay an extra $1,000 to $10,000 in notary fees to get around these articles, and that such
articles are probably in effect in other towns in France as well.Marine
Ouaknine, president of the local CRIF, the umbrella organization of secular
Jewish groups, told Le Figaro that she was “shocked” to learn that the law was still on the books.”This is the highest
degree of horror imaginable,” Ouaknine said. “We should not underestimate the significance of
this kind of thing. She called for local real estate agencies and cooperative
boards to “take the initiative” to change the law.